Most Inspirational Moment
Desert night at Wadi Rum. It was so amazing to pull out the beds and sleep under the stars.
Thoughts on Group Leader
He was okay. I felt like we never knew what was going on it was always a surprise. It made it difficult to plan ahead and be prepared. There were a few times when I didn't pack correctly for the day because he never took the time to explain some of the small things. For example, our day at Petra. It was really hot so I didn't want to carry my backpack, so I used a spybelt and my pockets and carabiners to carry water, sunscreen and money. He had told us we'd be doing lots of walking so I made sure to wear the right shoes. However as we are unloading from the bus he hands us a bag which contains our lunch in it. He says to hide it when we go through security - well I didn't have a backpack to put it in! I wasn't the only one who didn't bring a backpack because we didn't know we were going to be carrying stuff. We made it in okay but then I spent the first 3 hours of my day carrying a plastic bag full of stuff and my sandwhich spend many hours in the sun before I tried to eat it. It is a small thing forsure, but his heads up the night before about the fact that we should bring a backpack because we would be carrying our lunch and would need to hid it would have gone a long way to make my day more comfortable. This is just one example of many days where similair things happened. There were other times when the water bottle was empty or he stored it somewhere in the hotel but didn't tell us where so I'd end up having to buy bottled water anyway. He told us that he is not the usual guide for this trip and had only guided 1 cycling trip before. I wonder how different my experience might have been with an experienced cycling guide. My friend who had done this same trip last year suggested that we ask the guide to organize Shisha for us for our night in the desert, which his guide had done for them. It sounded like a great experience to be under the stars, listening to bedoin music, drinking sweet tea and smoking shisha. I talked it up to a few people in the group and we were all excited for this opportunity. So I asked our guide if he could help us organize this and he said "we'll see". Needless to say, the desert night came and went and he never got us anything. Not only that but he didn't bother to tell me that he wasn't able to organize it. Communication was lacking with him. Perhaps if I had known he wasn't going to put in the effort, some of us could have maybe tried ourselves to organize it. I do feel like I missed out that night because I had gotten so excited about it and he let me down. Overall you could clearly tell he was knowledgable and passionate about Jordan and its history. I just felt he lacked good communication and going the extra mile for us.
Advice for Potential Travellers
There are no panier bags! So bring a bum bag.